It’s that time of year when we have to finalise our budget and set the Town Council’s precept for 2015/16.

It used to a simple exercise, but now we’ve taken over some local facilities from the District Council, such as the cemetery and Chipping Bonhunt’s excellent tourist information centre, we have to count the pennies very carefully. I’m sure my Town Councillors won’t mind me saying that I’m always very careful to give them clear guidance on how we should manage our income and expenditure.

The precept forms part of the Council Tax and impacts directly on everybody living in the town, so we have a duty to ensure that we only collect what we really need and that we spend it wisely.

Fortunately, thanks I might say to careful management over the years by yours truly, we’ve been investing sensible amounts in maintaining our assets and our Town Council Business Plan has ensured that we haven’t had any nasty shocks, unlike one or two other towns in Essex that I could mention.